The Unwalked Path
by SonicRyu
Summary: Locked in a strange prison is a Heartless,and he will not be kept there for long.Over six years have passed,and now the Keyblade Master must again fight for the fate of all worlds,wether he wants to or not.But,can he truly defeat the Non-Existant Ones?
1. I: Imprisoned

Author's Note: Alright folks, I have finally been able to upload my first story. Joy to world! And just in time for my birthday., too! COUGHDEMCEMBERSEVENTHCOUGH. What? I didn't say anything. You readers sure have bad hearing. COUGHNOYOUDON'TBUYMEPRESENTSCOUGH. Anyway, this'll be a Kingdom Hearts fic, taking place over six years after the events of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories. Yeah, I know, it's not even released yet, but even so I've made my own little plot for the end of it that's vital to my story, so there. Well, I suppose there's not that much more to say. Note that I have an insane amount of free time, so I should be able to get chapters written pretty quickly. The bad thing about having so much free time is that I have developed an addiction to video games, and play them as much as possible. So, if I'm late getting up a chapter, it probably because I can't stop playing Viewtiful Joe or Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg. Also, I'll except any reviews to help make the story better, but please, no flames okay? Constructive criticism works wonders for me. By the way, you'll probably be kinda confused about how our hero Sora got into this whole situation, but rest assured it will obviously be explained down the road. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta do the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: You're an IDIOT if you actually think I own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, this would be the freakin' plot for KH2 and not a fanfiction on a website, don't you think? Good, because I'm not saying this every single chapter, only this one. Don't sue me, for the love of god, I've only got five bucks! What the hell can you do with five bucks, eh Tetsuya Nomura?! Thank you. Onto the story!

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"Thinking of you, wherever you are." _Soothed the voice._

"We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.

Now, I will step forward to realise this wish." He couldn't help but smile. 

"And who knows: maybe starting a new journey may not be so hard or maybe it has already begun." Could he do it too? Could he start a new journey?

"There are many worlds, but they share the same sky-

one sky, one destiny." The voice finished. He smiled wider, and removed the blindfold.

The darkness swallowed all.

****

XIII

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It was dark. And cold. And...frightening. Just like yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and so on into the farthest reaches of his mind.. He surveyed his kingdom from the top of his castle, the highest block with his family crest embeded into it elevated so he could get a better view. His shoulder-length hair flew in every direction that the artic wind blew, and he cursed himself for not putting on some warmer clothes. 

"It may have been my own fault for making my subjects give up the warmth of light and plunge themselves into the icy abyss of darkness...but it matters not. It is now time to feed."

****

XII

He raised his gaze and arms upwards, as if to summon something. A second later, in a burst of purple electricity and black shadow, his most trusted viziers, servents, and friends formed into existance. 

Or non-existance. They gathered around him, the platinum-haired man to his far left placing his hands respectfully behind his back as the shirtless, tatoo-covered man to his immediate right crossed his arms haughtily. 

He lowered his arms and his eye glowed a terrifying golden. It began to rain hard as a massive portal of dark energy opened in the black sky, and millions of black/gold figures rained down upon the kingdom. He smirked.

"It has begun."

****

XI

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A vibrant, lively town was once again at the end of another day."Same old, same old, day after day! Why can't anything interesting ever happen here?!" The citizens would exclaim in frustration, as they traveled back to their cozy little homes and tucked themselves in for the night. But four children would not go to sleep with the rest of the town, for they were not like the others who lived there. One of them especially.

This very same one held what appeared to be a strange trophey or plant of some sort on his lap as his sandy blonde hair flowrf gently in the wind. The plant itself was a blue and black mass of twists and turns, the many branches of it curving in many directions. Situated at the end of each branch was a perfectly round stone. The other three children- his friends- were sitting on top of the tower overlooking Twilight Town as well: a boy with a serious yet gentle face and a blue and white headband on his forehead to keep his long black hair out of his eyes, another boy with an energetic and confident air around him and blonde hair that spiked straight upwards, and finally a sullen, almost depressed looking young girl in orange with long black hair.

"So it's finally time, huh?"The boy with the spiked hair asked curiously as one by one the other three children were tossed a stone from the trophey/plant object for themselves and examined it.

The sandy-haired boy looked down at Twilight Town for a few seconds, before taking his own stone off of the thing in his hands. The other three children's stones were now glowing strangely, but his was not.

Finally, the boy motioned for the other's to follow suit as he held his stone up to the sun. It glinted mangificently off the sunset's reflection.

"....Something so simple...."

"I'll take that as a yes."The other blonde boy laughed.

****

X

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A young girl watched the sunset from the place that overlooked Twilight Town. She knew she should be getting home soon, it's best not to be out after dark in Twilight Town if you valued your life, but she just couldn't help but watch the sunset. It was so beautiful, how the light turned everything red- the sky, the clouds, the ocean just beside the town, and that mysterious little island that nobody was allowed to go to.

Of course, she knew what lie there, but it was okay to want to go back just as long as you didn't....right?

"There I go, remembering the good old days again."The girl said with a laugh as a gentle breeze ruffled her shoulder-length red hair and blue skirt. She couldn't go back home anyway, not when she was meeting someone here.

****

IX

"What took you so long, Kairi?" A voice questioned. The girl in question smiled excitedly, then immediatly turned around. 

Leaning up against the tall old tree behind her was a man,dressed entirely in a long black raincoat with the hood up over his face. While nothing could be discerened of the top part of his pale face, if you looked hard enough you would see many shocks of crimson hair, and warpaint just under his eyes.

****

VIII

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It brought a smile to her face, for some god-foresaken reason, doing this. It fealt right, fealt almost refreshing. She stuffed the long letter into the bottle, and sat down at the beach's shore. A gentle, albeit cold breeze russled her shoulder-length blondish hair, and she placed the bottle into the tide. 

"A world without you..."

She blinked when she felt droplets of water hit her, and she looked up to find the sky suddenly pitch black and billowing with clouds, a few rays of light barely shining threw them. It began raining very hard, and she stood up and ran to find cover from the cold of the rain. It was good that she did, because the cold rain was the least of the coming problems.

The portal manifested itself abrubtly, and the army of black/gold figures fell to reap havok upon the people. Among the turbulent seas, two figures stepped out of the water and walked upon it as if it were solid. They were both short and identicle, save for their color. One was a dark purple, and possessing only it's left, golden eye. The other figure was golden yellow and possessing only it's right, purple eye. Both had a half of the same crest embeded into their chest; a black heart with red edges, and what appeared to be thorns sticking out of the sides. The two both reached down and picked up the bottle together, examining it. A cold, raspy voice eminated from the purple one.

"My kin shall not be pleased."

An equally raspy one came from the golden. "Nor shall mine. They would certainly end our existance should they learn of this."

They sighed together, and then spoke in unison as well. "But, it must be done, for the survival of the Omniworld and our master." With that, they turned and tossed the bottle back into the stormy seas, then disappeared. They had prepared the letter in the bottle for a long, long journey.

****

VII

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A silent, horrific moonlit beach full of black crags and broken rocks rested before an increasingly turbulent sea of dark water. The sky, like everything else here, was unbelievably black. The massive moon shone dimly above.

A glowing, broken crest appeared on one of the crags for but a second, before it too was swallowed into darkness. A figure, transparent for a moment as he passed through the crag like some kind of ghost, took a few steps forward to survey his normally horrifying surroundings. The hood of the raincoat he wore covered all of his features from view, save for the bottom half of his pale, stern face.

A single eye glowed yellow from beneath the darkness of the hood.

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VI

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The sunset was slowly giving way to night, and everyone knew you shouldn't be out at night in Twilight Town. The sandy-haired boy ignored that completely, as he ran down the street as fast as possible. A white/silver creature was what he was running after, and it was putting up a good chase. Finally he was begining to catch up to the creature as it crawled along walls and stretched it's body like elastic to get around faster. At the last moment, the creature created a small, blue portal of dark energy against the wall and entered. The boy jumped, defying gravity as he ran along the wall, and then he followed.

Now in a realm of complete blackness, he got to his feet atop what appeared to be the circular roof of a massive pillar, the sides covered with stained glass windows of varying shapes and sizes. He knew where he was, he had been here before- and lost a battle he was not prepared to face at the time. But now, he wouldn't loose. 

A massive creature completed by white armor and long, scarf-like tendrils steming from around it's neck rose up above him. The boy narrowed his eyes. "Hello again, Darkside."

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V

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A figure wrapped up entirely in red bandages walked into the large room, shooed his servant away and settled himself contently in his favirote armchair with a glass of wine. It was the good life, ruling Twilight Town, and he really couldn't ask for more. Okay, so that was a lie. Truth is, there were many things on his agenda that he hadn't yet done, and it all involved a certain special boy.

The creature took another sip of wine through the parting in the bandages around his fanged mouth,then smiled to himself."You gonna watch me here all day, or are you gonna show yourself?"

The man in the raincoat stepped again out of the shadows, striding across the room and stopping so the creature was across the table from him."So, what's new?"The creature asked casually as it sipped some more wine.

"You know why I'm here."The hooded man replied darkly.

The creature stiffened visibly."Er...y-yes, I know."

"Then you know what will happen if you send a Darkless after him again."

"...Yes. Yes, I do."

There was silence between the two for a few seconds, before the man in the raincoat again spoke with a slight turn of his head to look at the bandaged creature. "They cannot learn of our plans, Ansem."

The creature threw his head back and laughed horribly, not caring that he accidently dropped his glass of wine in his excitement. "You are a funny one, you know that?"He said after regaining his composure again.

With another shadowed glare, the man in the raincoat turned and left the room in his usual way of fading in and out of reality. Only his voice was left on the wind's breath.

"Something so natural...."

****

IV

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The man with the glowing eye slowly walked along the beach. Finally, he stopped when he came to yet another person that was also dressed in a hooded raincoat. This person was sitting cross legged on a rock with his hands calmly placed over his knee, watching the stormy black seas.

With one glance at the sitting person, the hooded man with the glowing eye inclined his head so as to look out to the ocean."Utter silence...."He whispered, mostly to himself.

The sitting man turned his head to face the newcomer."He looks just like you."He said with the smallest of smiles.

The standing man shifted uncomfortably for a few seconds, hoping not to have to reply to that sentence."...It's starting."The sitting person raised an eyebrow under his hood, then stood up and crossed his arms over his chest."Is it now?"He then laughed a strange, almost unreal laugh before speaking again."One will destroy, while the other will save. Correct?"

The hooded man looked at his counterpart with his glowing eye.

"The third key....."

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III

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A figure covered from head to toe in a black raincoat walked forward, stopping at the edge of the crest-bearing, fully-elevated block. He stared downwards for the longest time, moving his lips as if saying a long sentence. But no words came out. Only silence. Utter silence.

The unknown man looked upwards and raised his arms. Short bursts of shadow and lightning scattered around the area, manifesting four figures dressed in the same raincoats as their leader. They stood to their feet, walking briskly towards him and coming to a halt around him. One of them calmly put his hands behind his back, and another crossed his arms.

"The Thirteenth Order. Has it been stationed yet?" The man with the arms behind his back asked.

"Indeed. In addition, we are all that is left." The man to their leader's far right replied.

"Am I supposed to be sad?" Sneered the crossed armed man.

"Not really, I suppose. That Almasy boy did bother me. Moving on. What of-" The man to their leader's immediate left was cut off once again by the cocky man with his arms crossed.

"Ansem's other report? Taken care of it. What say you, boss-man?"

All of them turned to their leader, the one who had summoned him. He smiled and moved his mouth. But this time, words came out.

"I say that it has begun once again."

A black blindfold gently fell in the cold breeze toward that speaker. In a flash of dazzling lights, a long weapon, black with a red handle, manifested in his hands. He slashed it downwards, slicing the discarded blindfold into broken halves. His smile broke into an insane grin. "Wake up, Sora."

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II

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Glowing eyes opened quickly as a fanged mouth gave a loud yelp. He sat up on the cold stone bed, the paper-thin blanket he had been given falling off of him. After taking a second to regain his composure, the pitch black figure let out a disgruntled sigh and rested his head in one of his clawed hands.

"It was that dream again." The creature known as Sora whispered. "But this time...there was more to it."

Sora swung his legs off the side of the hard bed and got to his feet, stretching for a minute before moving towards the 5-inch thick bars of his cell. There were no windows or clocks in his cell, but there was one just on the wall outside. The sky was still dark, but just showing signs of daybreak. He'd been here long enough to tell the time merely by how dark it was outside, so he could guess it was probably around 

five or six o'clock. He sighed and turned, pacing around the room.

The cell itself was actually quite expansive, but there were no lights whatsoever save for the little that came from the lightposts outside his room. The massive space of the dark cell only served to remind him how alone he was. It was wet in here and very cold, though considering it wasn't possible for him to feal warmth any longer it didn't much matter. There was a very small bed made from solid stone, and he was only given a blanket, but no pillows. There was also a very old, very beaten up oak chair next to the bars that he was sure would fall apart the next time he sat down on it. Otherwise, the cell was completely empty.

"I just don't get it. I've been having that dream for almost every day I've been here. But lately, more parts seem to be adding onto it." Sora whispered to himself, pacing faster around in the darkness. "And what do those numbers mean? They always count down from thirteen, but always stop at two." To top things off, every time one of the numbers were shown he swore he could see words scattered around, possibly forming sentences, but he just couldn't see them clearly to tell what they said.

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What is this all supposed to mean?He thought, pondering the meaning of the dreams for the umpteenth time. They definitely weren't normal dreams, he could feal a strange prescene there with him, guiding him through the dream. _Then, is this prescense _trying_ to show me these things? Is it trying to tell me something? Well,_ _it's obvious I'm not getting out of this damned prison for a very long time, if ever, so what does it want with me?_

Sora stopped pacing, sitting down on his stone bed. He sighed and reached behind him, pulling out a old, beaten and battered picture from his back pocket. The picture showed a brown haired boy, at least fifteen or sixteen years old, who had either arm slung around the shoulders of a black-furred knight who was grinning happily and a short, white-feathered wizard who was winking and pointing to himself with his thumb, obviously trying to look cool. The knight had inched his long arm past the boy and had his hand right behind the wizard's head, only extending two fingers. The wizard hadn't noticed, but rest assured he proceeded to scream and shout at the knight for ruining the picture after it was taken. 

There was another person, a bit taller then the first boy. He had shoulder-length silver hair and was grinning, his arms folded over his chest. It was apparent though that he wasn't standing very close to the others. The fifth and final person was even shorter then the wizard, covered mostly by a black hooded raincoat. He was smiling slightly, but it was a sad, depressed smile. One black gloved hand was scratching the ears of a tan-furred dog.

"I wish you were you here."Sora muttered, barely disernable over the howl of the wind."I wish I could tell you all what was going on, and I wish we could get through this together. But...you're not here. I am. Only...me."

**__**

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

Sora's head snapped upwards at the sound of the guard's heavy metallic footsteps. He put the photo back into his pocket and leaped into a far corner, letting himself be concealed by the darkness.

"Yeah, so, who's my roomate going to be?" A young voice asked.

"..."

"Hello? Anyone in there?"

"..."

"Oh come on! Sure we hate eachother, and I did kick your ass pretty good, and yeah, so technicly I nearly cut off your friend's arm and stabbed you in the stomach and kinda knocked out some of your stupid black teeth, but that dosen't mean we can't be friends!"

"Don't you _ever_ shut up?!" The dark, gruff voice of the guard monster roared.

"Only when my vocal cords give out, buddy."

"...I hate my job."

The guard, which was one of the many green skinned, seven feet tall, horned creatures called 'orcs' that serve as wardens in the prison, came into view in front of Sora's cell. From what he had overheard from the guard's many conversations, the orcs had been enslaved by the owner of this place, who just happened to be incredibly powerful. Due to their strength and lust for battle, they had been stationed as the guards and wardens for the prisoners. And this paticular orc was leading a hand-cuffed, black haired young man along with him. The man was dressed in tattered purple clothing and his hair had been spiked directly backwards, leaving only a few bangs to fall over his eyes.

"Umm...hate to break it to you, but there's nobody in there. I must of clocked you really hard if you forgot the cell I'm goin' to. Or maybe you're just really stupid, I'm not sure."The man laughed.

"Shut up! He's in there, he's just not showing himself." The orc growled in reply.

Sora took this time to speak up, his form still hidden in the shadows. "Six years I have been here, never has one of your guards been foolish enough to put another living being here with me. Why start now? Do you hate this person that much?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. However, this is orders straight from the man upstairs himself."The orc said.

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What? The person who owns this damned place is actually ordering someone into my cell? As far as I know, that's never even happened before. Sora thought bitterly. On numerous occasions he had overheard the guards calling him the most dangerous prisoner they've ever had. The orcs had debated many times over putting another prisoner who had been given a death sentence in the same cell as him, but quickly would decide that "nobody deserves to have their heart ripped out". Why would they start now?

"Get your ass in there!" The orc yelled, opening the cell door just enough to shove the young man in and then slam it shut behind him. "Hey kid, I'm hopin' you'll kill him or something! Maybe I'll give you a bit more food if you do, eh?" The creature laughed and walked away to patrol the grounds.

The young man looked semi-nervous now. "Hey, er...whoever you are, I know you'd probably like more food or something, but I kinda like being alive and everything, so-"

"I'm not going to kill you. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a murderer." Sora replied, stepping out of the shadows so he just happened to be standing right in front of the young man. He let out a yell and jumped at least a foot in the air, then ran to the other side of the room and backed up against the wall.

"Holy crap! They put me in here with a freaking Heartless!"

Sora let out yet another sigh. "I know what I look like. But I told you, I'm not a killer. I'm not going to take your heart or anything." The man visibily seemed to relax, but still was tensed up and looked ready to fight. _Well, he dosen't_ look_ like any Heartless I've ever seen._ The man thought, looking Sora up and down. The strange Heartless-like creature he was seeing was slightly taller then the others of his kind, possessing spikey black hair that seemed to jut out in all directions. His eyes were the same glowing yellow orbs as the rest of the Heartless he'd seen, but they carried a strange sense of warmth, sorrow, and intellegence, completely unlike the emptiness he had seen in the other Heartless' eyes. He also possessed a mouth, barely disernable when closed but completely apparent when open due to the gleaming white fangs. Long, zig-zag antennae steming from within his hair went all the way down his back. 

Also unlike the Heartless, Sora wore clothes. He had a simple black shirt with no sleeves and a silver crown design embroadered onto his chest. Over that he wore a long-sleeved black jacket with a silver zipper going down the front(though he kept it unzipped), and covering his hands were black gloves. The fingertips of the gloves had been ripped off in order to make room for sharp clawed fingers. There was a silver strap over the backs of the glove, and somehow bonded to the material of the strap was a silver, disc-shaped object. A black belt with metal silver edges and lining around the many holes of the belt held up baggy black pants, a silver metal chain hanging on one side of the pants. He wore no shoes, leaving his three-toed, clawed feet bare.

"What's your name?" The man asked, suddenly very interested in who this strange Heartless was.

"...It's Sora."

The young man moved closer, extending his hand. "Well, hi Sora. It's nice to meet you, I guess. I'm Zack." Sora glanced a Zack's hand, pausing for a moment. Then his clawed hand grasped Zack's in a handshake, and Zack visibly shivered. _Man, he's colder then anything I've ever fealt before! His skin's gotta be at below zero tempertures or something!_

"Sorry." Sora said regretfully, quickly letting go of Zack's hand.

"It's fine." Zack replied. "So, what are you in for?"

"Besides the obvious?" Sora said as he walked over and sat down on the stone bed. "Well...let's just say I'm not very popular around here, okay?" Zack laughed. "Me neither. Those monster guys have been chasing me for a while, and I can probably guess it's cause of Avalanche."

Sora's glowing eyes blinked. "Avalanche? What's that?"

Zack smiled proudly, grabbing the oak chair and spinning around around so it's back was facing and sitting down with either leg over the sides. "My 'terriorist' group. Well, truth is it's not really mine, but I took over once a friend of mine, Barret, was killed."His voice broke at this point, and Sora suddenly realised that it was probably a Heartless that killed him. Zack perked back up, changing the subject back onto Avalanche. "We travel around worlds, kickin' Heartless ass and hoping to stop 'em once and for all. You....do know about worlds and stuff, right?" He added, unsure.

Sora half-smirked. "Of course. But I thought traveling between worlds required a Gummi Ship?"

"It does." Zack replied. "We found a bunch of these weird meteors, which I assume is this Gummi stuff your talking about. You'd be amazed at how smart my bud Nanaki is, he figured out that those weird blocks traveled threw worlds and built a huge ship out of them using Cid's blueprints for the Highwind."

"_Cid_?!" Sora exclaimed, leaping off the bed and right down in front of Zack. "Cid Highwind?!"

Zack blinked, startled. "Wha? How do you know Cid?"

Sora's eyes were wide in shock. He just couldn't believe that this strange young man knew who Cid was. "He was a friend of a mine, a long time ago." He whispered. "Wow, that's unbelivable! How's the guy doin'? Does he still spew out cusses every two words?" Zack replied.

Sora didn't reply for a moment, thinking. "Huh? Oh yeah..." He said, trailing off. _Zack is friends with Cid? That's just unbelievable. Did he grow up in Hollow Bastion too?_

"Anyway, I guess we can talk about this stuff when we get out of here, right?"Zack said with a grin.

Sora blinked. "What? Get out of here?"

"Well, duh. You don't actually expect me to just sit around here for the rest of my damn life, do you?"

Sora let out a sigh as he sat down on the bed once again. "Let me explain something to you, Zack."He began. "I've been here for six years. For the first month I was here, I spent every day and every night planning and attempting to break myself out of here to find my friends. And every single time I tried, I failed. In punishment, the orcs would torture me for around a week, and then they'd cut off my food for another week. But I kept trying, and each time they'd break just a little more of my spirit. Finally I realised I was fighting a loosing battle, and gave up. Zack, I don't mean to be so blunt, but you're never going to get out of here. You will live out the rest of your life in this hell hole and you will die in here."

Zack stared at Sora for the longest while, never blinking. His face was serious. Then, he burst into a fit of laughter. "What?"Sora said over the sound of Zack's laughter. "What the hell is so funny?! You're going to die here! There is no escape! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHING?!"

Zack just smiled, rubbing the tears of laughter from his eyes. "Sorry. It just strikes me funny that you think I didn't come here prepared."He said, chuckling under his breath. "I've been in prison more times then I can count, me and the other Avalanche members have pretty much worked out a solution."

With that, he opened his mouth wide and reached inside, grabbing onto one of his teeth and pulling as hard as possible. For a few minutes there was silence between them, until finally Zack ripped out the tooth and held it up for examination, seemingly ignoring the fact that his mouth was now incredibly bloody.

"Got this idea from a movie. Come here, will ya?"He asked, spitting out some of the blood. Sora obeyed, walking forward cautiously and wondering if Zack had just gone insane. He was suprised to see that the top of the tooth appeared to be mechanical. "What in the..."

Zack grinned. "This baby sends out a new kind of radio signal back to Avalanche HQ. It's a special signal we spent ages working on; Nanaki found some way to nearly simulate the world-traversing properties of those- what did you call them? Gummi? Eh, I'm not quite sure how it all works, never did pay any attention in science class..."

Sora was amazed. "Let me get this straight. Your _tooth_ is some kind of mini-radio tower that sends out a distress signal across worlds and straight to your friends? That's ingenious! I didn't even know you could simulate the effects of Gummi Blocks!"

"You can't, really. At least, not on anything physical. Or...something like that, I'm not the smart guy of the team, really. Nanaki said something about the mechanics of the meteor's quantum-dimensional something-or-another properties surpassing the brain capacity of a normal human...or something."

Sora was very interested now. "So, this Nanaki you keep talking about isn't human?"

"Naw man, I'm not even sure _what_ the heck he is. Dosen't matter anyway, but he's _way_ smarter then even that bastard Hojo, and that's something, believe me. Anywho, Nanaki said that the vast untapped energies within the Gummi stuff could not be contained or reproduced within another corporeal object, but they could be nearly mimiced in the form of another energy form in the electro-magnetic spectrum similar to radio waves, but completely different from them at the same time." Zack explained, all the while straining to remember the exact wording.

"Amazing. And I thought you weren't the science buff?" Sora asked, interested to know how Zack could remember all those complicated things.

"Ah, that's the blessing and the curse of a near-photographic memory. But we're getting off topic here. See, once this tooth comes out of my mouth, the little machine thingies register that I need help, so it sends out the signal across worlds, which can only be read by Nananki's special machine thing in our Gummi Ship. In about an hour, they'll send back the signal, which is basicly like saying "Yo dude, we're on our way". They storm the castle, we break out, clamber on the Gummi Ship, and off we go back to our home world."

Sora, for once, actually found himself smiling. _Unbelievable. This Zack guy...he's actually making me believe we can do it. He's so happy, so carefree....reminds me of Goofy, in a way. Maybe...this time, I can get out of here._

Zack laughed, standing back up and walking over to Sora in order to put his arm around his shoulder. "Yeah, I'm gettin' my ass out of here, and you're comin' with me."He said with a grin. "Are you sure your friends will accept a Heartless?"Sora asked, a tinge of sorrow mixed in with his voice.

"Of course! I'm a pretty damn good judge of character, and I can tell your a nice guy under that Heartless look you have. Besides, I'm sure you and Vincent will hit it off! You've both got that whole dark, brooding, "Oh my god, life sucks" thing goin'."

Sora laughed. "Yeah, okay. I'll come with you."

Zack laughed again and clapped him on the back. "Good! Then maybe you can join Avalanche!"

"You know, I just might." Sora replied with another smile. He couldn't explain it, but Zack just had the strange ability to make it impossible _not_ to be happy-and hopeful-when around him.

**__**

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! "Hey you two, shut up in there! No talking 'till sunrise! The only sounds I wanna hear comin' from this cell are screams of pain, alright!" The guard roared, having returned from patrolling the grounds and now stationing himself to guard the cell.

"Right, right!" Zack yelled back. "Keep your socks on, beautiful, we'll shut up!"

"Relax, orcs have terrible hearing. Whisper and they won't even here a peep." Sora whispered, and indeed, the guard made no reaction.

"Well, that's good to know." Zack replied, lowering his voice to a whisper as well. He took Sora's hand, shivering slightly but trying not to make it apparent, and gave him the tooth. "Listen, I was up all night running from these orc guys, so I'm gonna catch a few zees before the calvary arrive. This tooth will vibrate in an hour when the signal is sent back, so wake me up when it does, kay?"

"Alright." Sora said with a nod.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dreamland." Zack whispered, and with that, he collapsed onto the stone bed and was asleep within two seconds. Sora smiled. This time, he would make it out.

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At the very top of the highest tower of the prison, stood the owner of this "hell hole", as the prisoners called it. The cold wind blew his black hooded raincoat around in the wind. Suddenly, in an array of dazzling blue lights, a figure teleported behind him. This man was tall, with frosty white hair that was wavy and hung down on the side of his face. He was dressed in elaborate black clothes and robes. Embedded into his forehead was a dull stone, the murky grey-brown of it contrasting greatly with the vibrant glow of his crimson eyes.

"Master, all has gone acording to plan. The man and the creature have already begun planning to escape, just as you foresaw. I must say, it is a brillant move, sire." The white-haired man said.

The hooded man in the raincoat inclined his head to look at his most trusted servent over his shoulder. "The brilliance is in the victory, not the beggining."He growled, his strange voice seeming too inhuman to exist. "Of course, I am curious to see how the creature handles the final stage of my plan before we let him escape."

"I wonder...do you think it was cause him to use _it_?"The white-haired man asked curiously.

"You are a fool. He abandoned that long ago. Remember, when they are captured at the front gate, order them to be brought to me."

"Of course, sire." The white-haired man bowed again, and teleported away in another show of blue lights and energy. The man in the raincoat smiled. All was going according to plan. "The first test is over, creature. You have passed with flying colors. Now...how you will handle the second trials?"

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Author's Note: Okay, I'm in the process of writing the second chapter now, so be patient. It should be up in a few days(cause I'm just that cool). COUGHBIRTHDAY'SDECEMBERSEVENTHCOUGH. Man, does anyone have some cough drops?


	2. II: Escape

Author's Note: Holy crap, this took a long time. Yes folks, it appears that I'm NOT just that cool to put up chapter two in a few days. The reason? Three words. Well…two words and a number. Final Fantasy IX. That's right, for my birthday I gots me Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy Chronicles. Although I haven't gotten around to the latter yet, I've been playing FF9 non-stop. However, I'm now stuck on that ******* Necron and his stop Grand Cross/Neutron Ring combo that totally decimates my party before I can remove the damn status effects. I'm thinking about using the cheap Dark Matter strategy to win, just cause I'm so desperate to see the ending. I wonder if I should bring Eiko into my party, or maybe….*continues going over strategies, lost in his own little world*

Amarant: *walks up to SonicRyu* …Dude, wake up. People are reading.

Huh? Oh yes, thanks Amarant.

Amarant: Don't thank me. The sooner you post this, the sooner an angry reviewer with serious issues will come by and totally destroy your confidence. Hopefully, although it's a long shot, you'll soon quit fanfictioning forever, abandoning your account or something dramatic like that, which means I don't have to be your muse anymore and can go back to kicking the crap out of bounty hunter's who try to get my bounty back in Treno.

….

Amarant: Later. *walks away*

…Right. Anyway, I'll try my best not to get too caught up in my new games that I completely forget about my story. Oh crap, and Christmas is coming up too! Although I'm not Christian, I celebrate the holiday just because that means I get presents, which is all that's on mind. DAMNIT! I seriously should have picked a better month to post this…

Also, thanks a bunch for the review Lynn! You rock da house!

See? You review, and I give you a shout on the author's note! Now don't you want that, too? Then start reviewing!

Vivi: Oh dear god, he's bribing people with shout outs.

Hiei: ….He has officially lost all forms of dignity.

Shut up! Oh, and I'm well aware that Zack is acting semi-out of character. Well, we didn't really ever see much of him in Final Fantasy VII, so I had to make up the gist of his personality. Anyway, on with the story.

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"I'm bored." Sora said, though he was grinning contently. "I'm bored. Haha! I'm bored!" Six years trapped in a single cell with limited food, water, and no entertainment, and he had never once been bored. He had forced himself not to feel anything, once he realized he was never going to leave this prison, he believed that his emotions would just get in the way of a long death. And he found it suprisingly easy to avoid his emotions, most likely because of his Heartless nature. But ever since Zack had appeared and told him his plan, it was like he was back to his old self, before he was a Heartless, when he had the Keyblade, and when he had his friends.

__

Friends...Sora crossed his arms over his chest, thinking hard. He was remembering something he had said long ago. 

__

"How will you fight without a weapon?"

"I know now I don't need the Keyblade. I've got a better weapon. My heart."

"Your heart? What good will that weak little thing do for you?"

"Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience, and it's found a home with all the friends I've made. I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then...if they don't forget me...then our hearts will be one. I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power!"

"I suppose that maybe friendship is integral to the heart. Could it be that the reason my spirit was so easily broken in this wretched place, was because I no longer have any friends with me?" Sora wondered. "I know that I'm a Heartless, but I also know for a fact that I do possess a heart. And I've wondered for so long, why I can't even feal the warmth of that heart within me. Was it because I couldn't feal my friend's hearts for so long, that I couldn't feal my own?"

Of course, that just brought up another issue that had been nagging at him for a while. For all the years he had been imprisoned, not once had he fealt the unity of hearts with his friends. Had they forgotten him? After all they had been through together, had they honestly just forgotten him like that?

Sora's train of thought was broken momentarily, however, by a loud snore from the sleeping figure of Zack, who snored so loudly the guard had to make up an excuse in order to get away and get some silence.

"That's right, though. I can feal my heart again. Then that means that a heart _does_ count on other hearts to sustain itself, right?" Sora inquired to himself. He turned his attentions on Zack. He could only guess that about forty-five minutes had passed, so the young warrior was still sleeping. Sora had spent all this time thinking as hard as possible, having fealt the odd change within him that he had just realized was his heart making itself present again. And one of the things that he couldn't seem to find an answer too was why he had excepted Zack so quickly. 

One of the reasons he had come up with was the massive amount of light within Zack. As a Heartless, he no longer saw the world as any other being would. While he still saw inanimate objects as normal matter, he saw sentient things in terms of light and darkness shaped in the figure of the person. And Zack's light was so strong it almost blinded Sora at first.

__

But no, Sora thought, _that's not the reason I opened my heart to him._ Although Sora was just realizing it, Zack reminded him of two people. One was the fact that his face looked uncannily like someone he knew in the past, though it had been so long he couldn't quite remember who. But the way he acted was all too much like _himself_, when he was younger and carefree. When he didn't possess such levels of darkness within him, and when he laughed at his friend's stupid jokes and fought with all his being for them.

__

And I've forgotten what it means to be that person. I've forgotten who that boy named Sora is.

Sora digged deep into his pocket, and pulled out the picture of himself as a human and four of his friends.

He stared at it so long and hard, he could have burnt a hole threw it. "If they've forgotten me...I'll just have to remind them. I'll find them, I swear."

Suddenly there was a small vibration in his other pocket. He put away the picture regretfully and pulled out Zack's tooth, which was vibrating so fast it was almost a struggle to hold it. A minute later, the tooth stopped shaking, probably meaning that the signal had been recieved. He once again put it into his pocket, then walked over to wake up Zack, who was still snoring at incredible volumes that Sora had thought was impossible to attain.

"Zack, wake up." Sora said. No reply. "Come on Zack, get up!" No reply. Sora shrugged. "Alrighty then, I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." He then took off one of his gloves and reached out, placing his bare palm on Zack's forehead.

"HOLY CRAP THAT'S COLD!" Zack screamed, literally jumping out of bed and hitting his head on the hard wet celing. "Augh! Who the hell put a freakin' stone above my head!" Sora chuckled lightly as he put his glove back on. "Zack, that's that little thing called the celing."

Zack blinked for a second, then grinned and looked embarrased. "Umm...yeah. But I sure showed it who's boss in this prison, right?!" Sora smiled as well, and then found himself joining in on Zack's laughter. His heart started to feal a bit warmer, more in-his-reach. And he was actually happy.

"Alright, so I assume the signal came back, right?" Zack inquired as he got off the bed and stretched a little. Sora nodded. "Good. It shouldn't take too long to track it back to this world and come here, and then my friends will just come threw the gates with guns blazin'!"

"Come in threw the front gate? Do you really think that's very wise?"Sora asked skepticly.

"'Course not! It's a distraction, it dosen't have to be very thought out! While the main Avalanche crew is fighting off the guys in the front, one of them will have remained on the ship and come around back. With all those stupid guards fighting in one area, it'll be no problem for that one dude or dudett to find us and get us outta here!"Zack said with all confidence, giving a thumbs up.

"Well...great."Sora said, concealing his doubts. It couldn't possibly be that easy, could it?

"...Alright, what's wrong?"Zack sighed, and Sora could tell he was concerned.

"What? Nothing's wrong."

Zack groaned and took this time to slap Sora in the back of the head. "Hey man, I already told you I'm a really good judge of character. And I know when something's bugging a person, so spill it already."

Sora just shurgged. "I've just been thinking about things."

"What things?"

"...My life. Before I became..._this._" Sora supplied, though it was plainly obvious he didn't want to go into details. Zack was silent for a few moments, trying to think up a response. "Sora, listen man. I don't care how you got into this mess, but I can tell you're not one of the Heartless. I don't know what you are, really, but you're a good guy. Don't ever forget that. Believe me when I say that our memories are our most precious belongings. They shape us, define us, and so long as you have your memories, you're still who you are."

Sora turned his head to look up at Zack. Zack in turn looked down at his face, then grinned and gave another thumbs up. Sora half-smiled, and for some reason those words continued to echo inside his mind, forcing him not to forget them.

**__**

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

The sounds of many heavy footsteps suddenly filled the silence in the air, as at least ten of the orc guards ran past the cell. Two of them, one the largest and one the meekest, were having a heated conversation.

"What's going on?! I heard something about a group of intruders or somethin'?!" The larger guard nodded in reply. "Yeah, a bunch of people just appeared out of this small little ring of light on the ground and are trying to break in threw the front gates!"

__

Ring of light?Sora thought. _Ah, the portal to the Gummi Ship! They're here!_

Zack smiled broadly, and as soon as the orcs were out of ear shot began laughing and jumping up and down laughing. "Booya! The calvary has arrived!"He excalimed. Sora ignored his taller friend, instead listening as hard as possible. He could just make out the sounds of metal clashing against metal, gunshots, battle crys and yells of pain, clear signs that the battle was already starting. _Honestly, I'm not sure if Zack's friends can stand up to all the guards in the prison; not only are they outnumbered by many but the orcs are extremely hard to take down, not to mention the fact that I've seen one punch down a wall in anger and only recieve a slightly sprained wrist._

"No. No. No. No. No." He couldn't see who, but someone was walking past each cell and checking their occupants. "Oh, this is just ridiculous. ZACK! ARE YOU HERE?!"

Zack let out a whoop of joy, pressing himself against the bars to try and see who it was, though he had already identified the person by the sound of his voice. "Yo! Nanaki! I thought it wasn't a good idea to arouse attention to yourself by yelling!" He exclaimed. "Zack? Thank God, I finally found you." Nanaki's voice said, relieved. A second later he ran into view of the cell, and Sora nearly fell over in suprise.

"...Nanaki is a dog?"

Once again, Zack slapped Sora on the back of his head. "Hey, he resents that. He's a lion, man, and the damn coolest one I've ever met."

Nanaki was indeed a red furred lion-like creature, although the air around him gave off the fealing of great intellect. He wore golden-silver armlets around his four ankles, and there were a few tatoo's on his shoulders. The most prominent was the one that merely was a large 'XIII' on his upper shoulder. A long scar ran across his face, closing one of his eyes permenantly, and many feathers of varying colors were tied into his short orange-ish mane. Nanaki was currently inspecting Sora very closely.

"Hmm...you are not a Heartless, are you?" He asked knowingly.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid to say that I am." Sora replied sadly.

"No, no you're not." Nanaki corrected matter-of-factly, taking Sora by complete suprise. "I can tell. A human spirit rests within that shell of a form, perhaps wrought with sorrow, yes, but still human."

Sora's glowing eyes stared into Nanaki's single open one, as he tried hard to figure out why he fealt such a similarity with him. Nanaki stared back, seeming to see straight threw him and right into his heart. He then smiled reassuringly and looked away, tilting his head upwards to look at Zack. "It's great to see you again Zack, we were all very worried when you were captured. Both of you should stand back, by the way."

Zack smiled again and nodded, stepping a few paces backwards and motioning for Sora to do the same.

One of the armlets on Nanaki's ankles began to glow, and Sora suddenly realised that there were many multi-colored spheres places into small slots on the surface of the peace of jewlery. Then, a massive ball of fire shot out of Nanaki's mouth, increasing even more in size as it traveled threw the air, and completey incinerated a humongous portion of the barred door.

"Whoo hoo! Great job Nanaki! Come on Sora, let's go!" Zack exclaimed, jumping threw the perfectly round opening in the bars. Nanaki stood up on his hind legs, humouring Zack by giving him a high five with his paw. Sora followed threw the bars, and Nanaki, who was still on his hind legs, offered his paw.

"I am Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon, grandson of Bugenhagen and son of the great warrior Seto. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"You too, I guess. I'm Sora."The Heartless replied, accepting his paw in a handshake. He quickly let go of Nanaki's paw, though, as he was worried the lion would be uncomfortable with the coldness of his hands.

Nanaki, on the other hand, didn't seem to flinch, obviously much better as controling his body's impulse to shiver then Zack. "May I ask though, why I can't shake the fealing that you're alot like me?" Sora mentally slapped himself a second later for coming off so rude.

Nanaki smiled sagely again as he lowered himself to all-fours. "We are both intellegent souls within a beastly exterior that we are ridiculed for, it is not unusual for two of a kind to feal they are kindred spirits. Come, we must be leaving before the other members of Avalanche are defeated. You are coming with us, are you not Sora?" He explained, as he began to turn and lead Sora and Zack down the expansive hallway of the prison. "Of course he is!" Zack exclaimed almost immediatly. Sora himself was absoloutely stunned at Nanaki, not only because of his appearence and the very-wise-old-man vibe he had, but because of the unusual amounts of light he gave off, almost on par with Zack.

"Alright, so let's run through the plan again." Zack said as he almost ran to keep up with the fast lion. "If you insist." Nanki replied. "I'm going to use my Materia to cast a Stop spell on the wardens of this odd prison. Such a powerful spell targeted at so many individuals will surely cause my body to give out even as I remain concious in order to maintain the spell, so you will have to carry me out of here Zack. At this point, we'll all just run like hell to the Gummi Ship and fly out of here."

Sora gaped. "You don't actually think it will be that easy, do you?"

Nanaki smirked. "You have lived in this prison for so long you now believe it to be impenatrable, which I assure you it is not. In fact, we faced no opposition whatsoever from the Heartless when travelling to this world!"

Sora's eyes widened. _What? They didn't encounter any Heartless? How is that possible?! The Heartless always attack a Gummi Ship whenever the see it in an attempt to gather it's occupant's hearts, and they didn't even see _one_?_

"I think we're close!" Zack exclaimed, pointing ahead as the battle was coming into sight. 

Sora squinted his glowing eyes to look ahead, his Heartless vision much better then that of a normal human. And he was quite suprised when he saw that many of the orcs had been knocked out. _It must be those spheres that they all have, like Nanaki. What did he call them? Materia?_

As they got closer to the battlefield, the other five members of Avalanche noticed them. "Hey Zack!" A woman with long blonde hair yelled. She was dressed in orange and using a long whip against the prison orcs. Currently clobbering another of the orcs was a tall, large creature which appeared to be a grinning humanoid rabbit, his brown fur constrasting greatly with the green and purple poncho he was wearing.

Jumping all around like some kind of graceful acrobat was a man with long red hair wearing a black cowboy-like hat over his head. A purple tank top that was many, many sizes two small was stretched over his chest, leaving most of his lower-abdomen bare. He also wore black pants and sleeves on his arms. The strangest thing about him was his weapon, which covered his entire arm. It appeared to be some kind of metal chain weapon, which was quite hard to describe. It stretched to amazing lengths and shot around so fast the orcs barely had time to react as it knocked them flying.

A large white creature with a zipper going up it's back was being commanded by a black cat with a crown and a long cape on it's head, who was using a megaphone to bark orders. An orc had rammed a whole spear threw it's torso, but the creature didn't seem to notice. Also, parts of it's arm had been ripped off, revealing what looked like robotics inside.

The fifth and final person was someone who actually scared Sora. His long black hair flowed freely behind him, as did his long red cape. A red bandanna was tied around his forehead and under the cape he was wearing all black, except for the gold metal of his shoes. His left arm was entirely a large, golden claw. He was firing many handguns at the orcs, occasionally pulling out a large brown rifle when he ran out of ammo for the handguns. The frightening thing about him was that he gave off almost no light, there was only darkness. But it wasn't the evil kind he had seen so many times before, more or less it was created out of tradedgy and self-loathing. But there was also the fact that there seemed to be four more presences within him, all giving off great amounts of darkness, and _not_ the self-hating kind.

As Sora, Zack, and Nanaki finally reached the other five members of Avalanche, the last of the orcs fell to ground, thanks to a blast of lightning from the large, apparently robotic white creature and the cat on top of it and the 'Materia' it possessed. The blonde haired woman, the red haired man, the rabbit-like creature, and the cat(who had just hopped off of the white monster's head and was walking on it's hind legs) all walked over to Zack and begun welcoming him back. The black haired man who seemed to carry four more people- or monsters- within him stayed back from the rest of them, taking the time to reload his rifle and handguns.

"Oh Sora, I guess I should introduce you to everybody!"Zack exclaimed suddenly. "Everybody, this is Sora. Sora, everybody. He'll be coming with us."

  
"Um....hello."Sora said awkwardly, fealing quite out of place. The caped cat leaned forward and frowned slightly. "...Is that a Heartless?"It inquired, earning it one of Zack's slaps to the back of the head. "No, you moron, he just looks like one, and he's a good guy." He then quickly changed the subject, hoping not to make Sora feal too uncomfortable.

"Sora, this is Quistis."Zack said, pointing to the blonde woman in orange. She was still eyeing Sora suspiciously. "This dude over here is Rod." Zack continued, walking over to the red haired man in black and clapping him on the back. Rod was looking Sora up and down, but seemed less suspicious then Quistis. "Hmmm, you look like you might have some heart. Maybe I'll test ya when we get back home." He said with a smirk. "Oh...kay."Sora replied, not quite knowing what he was supposed to say."

Zack dropped down to his knees and gestured to the cat in the cape. "This guy is Cait Sith, although his real name is Reeve and he's not a cat. He's controlling Cait Sith by remote control, because as you may have noticed he's just a robot." Zack then stood back up and looked towards to giant rabbit creature in the poncho. "And this weird looking guy is Niccolo."

"I resent that." Niccolo grumbled, but then his demeanor changed immediatly when he leaned down to shake Sora's hand, his thick gloves protecting him from Sora's cold hands. "Hi! I'm Niccolo, pleased to meet you. Would you care to buy a greenball bun? Normally it'd be a reasonable 5,000 Lucre, but I can tell you're a great guy, a real go-getter, so just for you I'll lower the price to 500. What d'ya say?"

Sora blinked in confusion, suprised that Niccolo had accepted him so quickly. "Umm...we'll I don't really have any munny or anything-"

"It's a rip off, don't go for it." Rod and Zack said immediatly, and Niccolo groaned in frustation and slapped himself on the face. Zack laughed and then turned to the black haired man. "And that moody dude over there is Vincent."

Vincent Valentine, who had just finished reloading his guns, inclined his head so as to look at Sora. His piercing crimson eyes bore into Sora's glowing yellow ones, and he nodded once to agknowledge he had seen him. He then turned his head away, looking towards one of the hallways of the prison as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. "We need to leave. Now." He whispered, his mysterious voice barely audible. "I agree with Vincent, we must leave before their reinforcements arrive."Nanaki nodded, relieved he didn't have to expend his energy casting Stop on the now-unconcious guards.

"C'mon Sora."Zack laughed, clapping said Heartless on the back. The seven Avalanche members began walking towards the front gate, which had been blown open. Sora stood there, staring at the open gate in disbelief. _I can't believe it. They did it. They actually did it._ A grin spread across his face, and he ran ahead of them, sprinting towards the outside world. He was finally free!

**__**

BANG!

Sora flew back almost ten feet before he hit the hard ground again, and he alowed himself a second to recover. He stood back up, groaning and wondering what had happened. And he was suprised when he saw what appeared to be a wall of multi-colored energy covering the gate, blocking their way out. _NO!_ He mentally screamed, unable to believe that he had been denied freedom once again. "What the hell is this?!" Zack exclaimed, walking up to the barrier but making sure not to touch it after what had happened to Sora. "It appears to be a spell." Vincent growled in his strange, almost monotone voice. "And a very good one at that." 

"Good guess, you're exactly right." A voice answered smugly. A frosty haired figure, dressed in elaborate clothing that was mostly black with a mixture of white, orange, and blood red, teleported a good distance away from them in a show of blue lights eminating from the ground under him. He was currently fixing a strange mask back onto his face before they got a glimpse of it, the black/brown/white mask only revealing his mouth and his scarlet eyes. 

The strange masked man clapped mockingly. "Congratulations are in order, I suppose. You are truly a superb fighting force, I didn't much expect you to defeat the wardens. I was going to intervene before they killed you, but seeing as you won, I must stop you before you leave the castle."

"Who are you?!" Sora yelled, feeling the anger boiling up inside of him. And he was almost free too...

The masked man waved one of his fingers around. "Temper, temper. I do not have to give you my name, but I would not feal like much of a gentleman if I didn't. For now, you may call me Doll Master."

"Doll Master?!"Niccolo exclaimed. "What kind of stupid name is Doll Master?!"

"A fake one, obviously." Quistis answered, readying her whip. Doll Master took note of this, eyeing it as if it were nothing at all to worry about. "Oh, I am not going to fight you. No, I am merely a messenger of sorts."

"And what's the message you're bringin' us?"Zack asked threw gritted teeth.

Doll Master smiled. "My master has need for you at his study. You will come with me, wether you like it or not." He replied. With that he thrust his hand forward, a blue light shot out of the ground under them, and a second later they were gone. Doll Master lowered his hand and teleported away himself.

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Sora, Zack, Nanaki, Quistis, Rod, Cait Sith, Niccolo, and Vincent were all teleported straight into a strange room. The room was completely circular, each wall covered by a curved bookcase which all, strangely enough, were empty of any books. There was a single, luxuorious armchair directly in the center of the room that looked more like a throne than a chair. And that was it. There was nothing else in the room.

Doll Master appeared a second later, and he took one look around the room before nodding to himself. "My master must be on the rooftop." He said, before turning his head to look at the eight people in front of him. Once again, all the occupants of the 'study' were teleported away, although they didn't know it would just be to the roof above them.

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A tall man dressed from head to toe in a black hooded raincoat stood conversing with another man in the same raincoat, this one a bit shorter. "...And to keep him in the dark about who the real leader is, because obviously you two have a connection and he would realise who you were. That's all I should tell him, right boss-man?" The shorter one finished.

"Correct." The taller one replied.

Blue lights eminated from the ground, signaling the arrival of Doll Master, Avalanche, and Sora. Just one second before they teleported in, the shorter man in the raincoat jumped off the tower, fading out of existance before he hit the ground. They never saw that he was there.

The nine people appeared on the tower roof, and the world suddenly became black and white. Time seemed to freeze, a buzzing sounded off in the distance, and the roof began to reshape itself. As color returned and time became normal again, the roof of the prison had become one incredibly expansive room, almost shaped like a half-circle. There were glass windows all along the walls, and a large desk was situated near the farthest wall. The words 'Shinra' were imprinted onto the room's carpet.

Doll Master seemed to take no notice to the sudden change in scenery. In one swoop of his arm, he removed his mask as he always did in his master's presense, revealing the dull gray-brown stone on his forehead. Still holding the mask he bent down into a bow of respect. "Sire, I have brought them just as you asked." He said.

The man in the raincoat stood in front of the desk, his hooded face watching the group. But his gaze soon lowered, and fixed onto the glowing eyes of Sora. And it was in that moment that Sora felt a horrifying chill run up his spine, even colder then the frigidness of his own body. He didn't know why, but he wanted to run as fast as possible, to get away from the hooded man many feet away from him, but his legs refused to move. The worst thing about him was the fact that he had no light _or_ darkness within him. There was nothing, except for a strange substance that he just couldn't describe. He was scared stiff, so he averted his gaze from the object of his fright and to the faces of the seven members of Avalanche.

While Quistis, Niccolo, and Rod didn't appear to know what was going on, Vincent, Cait Sith, and Nanaki were staring at the room they were in in disbelief. It was obvious that they had been here before from the looks on their faces, but it was also obvious that it was impossible for them to be in this room.

Sora looked up into Zack's face, and his eyes widened in shock.

Zack was standing there, his arms at his sides and his hands rapidly clenching and unclenching. His body was shaking and he was sweating profusely, but the cause of it just seemed to be his extreme anger. He was panting threw his teeth, and it almost looked like all his teeth were going to be broken because he was gritting them together so hard. The most frightening thing about him right now was his eyes. There was a newfound fire within them, a rage the likes of Sora had never seen before. But Zack wasn't looking at the room. His blazing eyes were glaring straight at the man in the raincoat before them.

For some reason, Sora found himself realising why Zack was so angry. _He's fought this guy before!_

The man in the raincoat lifted his shadowed eyes upward, locking them with Zack's as if to say 'I dare you to attack me'. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead, the words merely appeared in their minds. _"Zack. How pleasent to see you again."_

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Zack let out a scream of rage, leaping forward and sprinting across the room before anyone could stop him. Doll Master made no move to do so as well.

In mere moments Zack had crossed the length of the room and launched his fist forward, aiming straight for the hooded man. His punch barely missed, as the unknown man nonchalantly titled his head to the side to dodge the blow.

__

"You are far from able to defeat me."

The unknown man suddenly pulled out what appeared to be a long saber of red energy and slashed Zack across the chest. The young man sent out a scream of pain, a long burn mark carved into his torso, and was lifted off his feet by the force of the blow and carried for a good ten feet before he hit the ground. The man stood to his full height, a second red energy saber generting in his free hand. He made a gesture with one of the sabers to Sora.

__

"Perhaps he is, but you are most certainly not."

Sora's eyes widened. _Oh my god! How could I have forgotten! That man...he's the same one who fought Donald, Goofy, Beast, and myself all that time ago! He's also the one who walked up to me on those crossroads and told me about what was going to happen! But...how does this guy know Zack?_ Sora ran forward, followed closely by the rest of Avalanche when they realised just how much danger Zack was in.

They didn't get very far. Doll Master jumped in their path, two long, flowing parts of the blood red cloth that he wore magicly re-locating themselves to either parts of his back so it actually appeared that he had wings. He thrusted his hand upward, spheres of yellow energy connecting to themselves in a helix-pattern appearing and revolving around his arm. An invisible force generated from Doll Master's outstretched hand suddenly drew them in like a vortex and the seven people where carried up Doll Master's arm by the spheres, the helix of burning energy scorching their skin. At the apex of Doll Master's hand the invisible force tossed them flying away from him, the seven landing in a heap on top of eachother.

"No!"Doll Master yelled, lowering his hand as the energy disapated, and the 'wings' lowered themselves back to their original spot. "This is my master's battle! You shall not interfere!"

Zack groaned in pain, pushing himself off the ground and stumbling back to his feet. He lowered himself to a fighting stance, ignoring the pain of the wound on his chest. "Even with my bare hands, I won't give up! I'm sure as hell going to kick your ass!!" He yelled, then sprinting forward again to challenge the unknown man.

__

"Noble. And pathetic."

Zack dodged the next slash of the sword, ducking under the one that came immediatly after. He shot out his leg, attempting to kick the man's feet out from under him, but he simply jumped high over it. The unknown man then went into a horizontal spin, becoming a whirlwind of the red sabers as he came down on Zack. The latter dived out of the way at the last second, rolling on the ground and then too his feet and the man in the raincoat landed on his feet as well, and launched himself at Zack at mind-boggling speeds.

Zack was barely able to move to the side as the man shot right past him with his energy sabers front-first, but he quickly spun around and launched a red ball of energy from one of his sabers. Zack let out a scream, not having expected the attack as the ball of energy slammed right into the long wound on his chest he had recieved earlier. The ball disapated on contact with Zack, but it still hurt so much he was momentarily stunned. The unknown man dismissed one of the sabers of energy in order to use his free hand to fire a bolt of blue lightning, the bolt hitting Zack head on. He let out another scream of pain as electricty danced all around him.

"Zack!" Sora yelled, running toward the battle once again in a vain attempt to help his newfound friend. Doll Master once again intervened, moving into Sora's way and thrusting his hand forward. A spell fired from his outstretched palm, causing a miniature explosion against Sora's face. He yelped in suprise and pain as the explosion sent him falling to his knees, smoke rising from his face. "I told you already!" Doll Master exclaimed. "No interfering!"

The brutal lightning attack subsided, and Zack fell to the ground face-first, black smoke rising from him. He wasn't moving. The shrouded man walked over to his body, his remaing energy saber disappearing.

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"It is done."

"ZACK!" Nanaki roared.

Zack's eyes opened suddenly, and he grabbed the man's boots with his hands. "I pride myself in not going down that easily, thank you very much!"He exclaimed and pulled the man's feet out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground with a loud 'thump'. Zack jumped up and sat down on the man's body, eyes blazing once again as he punched him again and again in the face. "Where's all your fancy energy attacks now, HUH?!"

The man's gloved hand suddenly shot upwards, grabbing Zack around the throat and sending many volts of blue electricity up his own arm and then into Zack's body, electricuting him once again. Zack could do nothing but cry out in pain. Once the attack subsided the man removed his hand from Zack's neck and placed both of his feet firm against his wounded chest, kicking him flying off him and right into the desk with such force that a few portions of the desk were knocked off. 

The hooded man quickly got to his feet, his hood somehow still on after all the punches he had taken. Electricity charged up in his hand once again, and he thrust it forward, firing another blue lightning bolt.

"Aw crap!" Zack exclaimed threw a bloody mouth, getting back to his feet and diving to the side as the bolt hit the desk, blowing apart most of it and leaving the chair in shambles. The unknown man fired another bolt with his opposite hand and Zack jumped to the side again, the bolt missing him entirely but blew apart one of the windows and rained glass down on the floor. Zack eyed the glass for a second, and then grabbed one of the paticularly sharper and larger pieces and threw it at his opponent. It didn't do much good, as the man created another of his energy sabers and nonchalantly slashed the shard of glass into tiny pieces in mid-air.

__

Gotta throw everything I got into this! Can't let this bastard get outta here alive! Zack thought, drawing on his last bits of strength lying within him. He was severly injured, but he wasn't giving up without a fight. "Alright man! Looks like you and me check out...TOGETHER!!!" Zack rushed forward, fist raised. The unknown man generated his second energy saber, calmly lowering into a defensive stance. Zack loosed a punch, but it was stopped by a sudden wall of blue energy, the barrier sending a small shock threw Zack on contact. "I'M NOT GIVING UP!" He roared, pouring next to all he had into a second punch against the barrier. The wall bent like rubber for a second, before it suddenly shattered into many shards of energy, just like glass.

__

"Impossible! He is not even special, how-"

Zack socked the hooded man right in the jaw as hard as humanly possible, and suprisingly a bit of blood flew out of the man's mouth, staining the carpet. He quickly punched him again, and this time the hooden man went down hard, but he quickly got back to his feet with blood trickling down the sides of his pale mouth. Immediatly he punched Zack in the face with twice the force that Zack had put into it, a sickening crack showing that he had knocked out many teeth. Zack was stunned at the force of the blow, and the hooded man immediatly generated his energy sabers again and slashed Zack on the inside of his knees, causing him to scream in pain and fall down in a kneel. The hooded man spun around quickly, hit raincoat swirling around him, and slashed Zack with both sabers directly in the face.

"**AGGH!**"Zack screamed out, the insane amounts of force that the blow possessed sending him flying into the air and across at least twenty or so feet, before he slammed back-first into a window. The window didn't break, but it cracked many times from the point of impact in a spider-web pattern. Zack slumped to the ground against the window, a trail of blood smeared down the length of the window.

Sora's eyes widened in horror, his mouth opening and closing many times soundlessly. He then let out a yell, forgeting that Doll Master would try to stop him and running towards the fallen form of his friend- his best friend. Doll Master let him pass, teleporting to the side of his master, who had dissmised his energy blades. The seven members of Avalanche didn't move, stunned into silence and paralysis.

Sora crossed the length of the room in record time, his Heartless body much stronger and faster then a human's, and fell to his knees beside Zack's slumped form. He tried many times to wake Zack up.

"Zack! Get up! ZACK!"

There was no response. Zack's eyes were closed, blood smeared all over his face and a long burn mark going across his cheek. Sora tried again and again, yelling and screaming for him to wake up to no avail. He hadn't noticed, but tears were falling down his face. "**WAKE UP!!!!"**Sora clenched his fist so hard his claws pierced his skin, and he punched Zack as hard as possible. His head slumped to the side, but he still wasn't moving. Then, his lips, red with blood, slowly curved into a weak smile. 

"Damn....that's...cold..."He muttered. And then, he fell limp.

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Sora blinked in confusion. Where was he? This didn't make sense, he was just in that strange room, and now where was he? All around him was energy of all types of colors, constantly moving and swirling around eachother. Then, he noticed his body. His anttenae were gone. His hair was brown. His eyes didn't glow. And best of all, he fealt warmth, the normal body heat all humans feal.

He was human.

"Hey."

Sora spun around, and was shocked to see Zack floating there a few feet from him in this abyss of energy. All of his wounds were healed and he looked completely healthy. He was wearing a white and green flanel shirt over a red T-shirt, and he was also wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes.

"Zack! But I thought you-"Sora was cut off when Zack waved his hand in dismissal.

"I did. But that's not important right now. I need to talk to you about something."

Sora ignored what he said, wanting answers for what was going on. "Where did you get those clothes? Where are we? Why am I human again?!"

Zack threw back his head and laughed. "Alright, I'll explain, but we don't have much time here. We are in what I think is kind of the meeting place of hearts. We are both purely in heart form now, and our appearences are based off of that. Your heart is still human, thus you are human. I don't know why I'm in the clothes I used to wear as a kid though..."

Sora was still dumbfounded by all of this. "But-"

Zack interupted once again. "Sorry, but I just don't have time. I called you here before I go for a reason. I need you to do something for me."

Sora nodded quickly, still confused. "Anything."

"There's a good friend of mine I need you to contact. You'll know him when you see him. He has really pointy hair, and alot of people say we look almost exactly alike."

Realisation hit Sora like a ton of bricks. That was who Zack remined him so much of, besides acting like Sora, he was the spitting image of Cloud Strife!

"I need you to give him a message. Tell him this: She is not dead. Meteor is coming again, and it can only be his fault. Gaia is loosing strength, and Shinra is back in action. Come to the cliff."

Sora nodded, memorizing the message. "Alright, got it."

Zack smiled warmly. "Good. He'll know what it means. And make sure to give the guy in the coat a good punch for me, okay?" He said. He could be mistaken, but Sora thought he saw tears in Zack's eyes. 

"Goodbye Sora. You're a true friend."

A flash of white suddenly blinded Sora.

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"He is dead, correct sire?" Doll Master inquired.

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"Indeed. Now silence, we must see how he copes."

Sora's form was holding the body of Zack close to him, completely still and soundless. For minutes he sat there, holding the dead body close to him. Finally, he stood up, picking up the body along with him. Black spikes of hair fell forward to shadow his eyes as he slowly walked over to Avalanche. He reached them and kneeled down, carefully lying Zack's body down in front of them. He stood back up and looked them all straight in the eye. He spoke in barely a whisper. "I'm sorry."

__

I couldn't save him. I couldn't even save him. I COULDN'T EVEN SAVE MY BEST FRIEND!

Sora let out a scream, pouring all of his sorrow into it. And then, the hooded man in the raincoat stepped back in horror. "Master? What is it?" Doll Master asked.

__

"No...it cannot be...he has..."

Something snapped deep inside him. Sora floated just a few inches above the ground and red, blue, and gold energy suddenly appeared around him, rotating around his form. Bright golden light shot out of his eyes and his mouth, and suddenly a gust of wind was generated from him, although it was only strong enough to blow around someone's hair and attire. All the glass on the window's shattered ominously, and lines of translucent energy formed on Sora's back. The energy shaped itself into something, before it then changed and merged with the fabric of Sora's jacket. Now on the back of his jacket was a large silver heart, but when the two lines would normally connect at the top area, they broke off and went downwards, then curled into themselves in a small spiral. The color of the heart design then shifted dramaticly, changing from vacant, empty silver to a blazing, firey red, exactly the same color as flame.

The energy spinning around Sora shrunk itself and went into his hand, then crystalized into the form of a long weapon. The hilt was a normal brown hilt, but the blue handles just above it split off and went upwards, then curved back downwards and met at a point at the end, so they formed a heart design around the hilt. At the base of a long shaft was a black band. The shaft itself was very long, and jutting out of the side of the very top of it was what almost looked like the outline of a crown, forming a 'key' part to it. The entire shaft and 'key' part was made out of a beautiful blue, transparent crystal. Hanging from a small ring that was connected to the point of the heart design of the handles, was a long blue key chain of three circles connected to eachother, one larger then the other.

__

"The-the third key..."The unknown man said.

The light and the wind subsided from Sora, and he looked down at the long weapon in his hand, glowing eyes wide. He couldn't believe it. It was a Keyblade, but none like he had ever seen before. _It dosen't matter. If this will help me defeat him, then I'll use it!_ He thought and he spun around to face the man in the raincoat, swinging the Kingdom Key out in front of him.

"Sire, should I-"Doll Master stopped talking when his master shook his head 'no'. Knowing that he shouldn't stick around, and now with his master's consent, Doll Master teleported away in his usual array of blue lights, leaving only one of his walls of energy around the remaining Avalanche members to keep them from interfering,

The unknown man generated both of his red energy sabers and slid into a battle stance, ready to fight.

"I'll make you pay!" Sora screamed, somehow blasting forward from some kind of multicolored energy that generated from his feet. Thanks to the boost, he was now running at such speeds that it didn't even look like his legs were moving, in fact he was so fast he appeared to be floating above the ground, flying towards his opponent and crossing the room in litterally half of a second.

The hooded man swung his energy sabers, but Sora slashed his Keyblade first, the strange weapon clashing with the swords of light. The two pushed against eachother for a second, before the force of Sora's Keyblade suddenly broke threw the sabers, causing them to disappate into red lights. Sora spun around quickly, using the momentum to put even more force behind the next blow he landed to the man's face. He fell towards the ground, but Sora didn't let up, spinning again and slamming him in the side with the Kingdom Key as he was falling, knocking him off his feet.

Sora pointed the end of the Kingdom Key directly at the unknown man's throat as he was sitting upwards, warning him that he would kill him if he moved. The man smirked, and fired off a bolt of lightning from one of his hands. But Sora was just too fast and, having seen it coming, grasped the end of the crystal shaft of the Kingdom Key with his free hand and brought it upwards, blocking the electricity bolt. But while the Keyblade was successfully blocking the attack, the force of it was pushing Sora back, the claws on his feet digging into the ground for support but only succedding in ripping up the carpet.

The man in the raincoat got to his feet, loosing another bolt of electricty from his other hand that combined with the first one, doubling it's power. But Sora couldn't be stopped, he pushed the energy away, reflecting it directly at it's master. The man was barely able to dodge it, but he wasn't able to dodge the jump-kick that clashed with his head the next moment. He stumbled backwards, and as Sora was falling back to the ground he unleashed a Ragnarok attack, not missing a single blow.

At the apex of the attack Sora jumped back into the air and drop-kicked his opponent with both feet, pushing off him at the same time. He backflipped many times in the air, then brought the Kingdom Key back at the zenith of his leap and then tossed it in a Strike Raid. Once again the attack connected, the spinning Keyblade bashing into the unknown man's stomach and then spinning back into Sora's hand like a boomerang as he landed on the ground. But he quickly attacked with another Strike Raid, repeating it again and again as the Kingdom Key returned to his hand.

The Heartless gritted his fangs together, his golden eyes blazing with an angry fire as he continued the rapid attacks on the already-injured man. He wouldn't let him survive!

The man in the raincoat, kneeling on the ground and grasping his injured shoulder, threw up his free hand and generated a wall of blue energy. The barrier stopped the next Strike Raid, the Keyblade redirecting itself and returning to it's owner. Sora opened his mouth to speak.

"Had enough ye-"

Time froze and everything became black and white, the same buzzing sound faintly heard in the distance.

Another raincoat wearing man, the same one who was conversing with the first earlier, suddenly appeared. He flickered slightly, as if not real, disappearing and reappearing as he strode across the room towards his boss. He became solid once more as he kneeled down and helped his boss to his feet.

"Need any help?"The newcomer asked with a smile.

"Shut up."The badly injured man growled, now speaking normally. "I had no idea he had that much power. It took me by suprise, and that pathetic fool I just killed had already injured me."

"Understandable. I can see why you called me here, if he has _that_ Keyblade." The shorter man replied airily, geusteuring to the frozen form of Sora. "At the rate this battle is going, he's going to kill you. And if he learned who you were, well, I think you know what would happen."

"Don't lecture me on things I already know!" The taller man yelled, already very iritable without his underling mocking him. He turned his head to look at Sora, staring long and intently. "I could never have dreamed that he would react like this."

"Of course not. Who could have guessed that the creature carried the third power within him?"

"....You know what to do."The first man said, straightening up and simply fading out of existence. The shorter man in the raincoat shrugged, kneeling down on the floor and grasping his shoulder, faking the injuries of his boss. "Don't know what chance I'll have to hold him off if he kicked the crap out of the boss like that, but I might as well try." The buzzing sound ceased, color returned, and time resumed it's normal course. To all the people in the room, nothing had happened.

"-yet?!" Sora finished the sentence, not even aware that he had been momentarily cut off.

__

"Not exactly, no."

The man in the raincoat stood up to full height, smirking arrogantly. He swiped his hand in the air, a sudden wave of fire generating from it and shooting towards Sora. He jumped over it, landing behind it and rushing towards the hooded man. The latter created another stream of flame, attempting to roast his opponent alive.

"Blizzard!" Sora yelled, a gust of artic wind and many shards of ice shooting off from the end of the Kingdom Key. The Blizzard Spell froze the fire in mid-air and Sora slashed right threw it, now directly in front of the hooded man. He slammed the Keyblade in a stabbing motion into his opponent's stomach, the force of the blow knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the ground.

__

"Oh yeah, you are so_ gonna pay for that."_

He jumped to his feet quickly, seemingly fine. But there was something he hadn't noticed as he was standing there. His hood had been knocked off.

Sora's eyes widened in shock as he lowered the Kingdom Key, staring in silent horror. The Avalanche members, still trapped behind Doll Master's wall of energy, blinked in confusion, wondering why Sora was stopping.

"No...." He whispered, stepping backwards.

__

"Aw dammmit_!!"_

The red-haired man screamed, realising his hood was down. He was incredibly pale, his crimson hair put up into many spikes that jutted straight backwards. His briliant green eyes contrasted greatly with the color of his hair, and there was some kind of warpaint under his eyes.

Sora could never remember his dreams very well. Sometimes he could only vaugely recall them, other times he couldn't even remember he had had the dream, and still other times they were perfectly clear. But when he saw the red-haired man's face, it all came flooding back to him. He had seen this man in his dreams, conversing plainly with a ruby haired young girl by the name of Kairi. But he had seen him before the dreams even started, before he had become a Heartless. He had once been his best friend.

"....Riku?"

The man who appeared to be an older version of Riku threw back his head, laughing horribly. He then thrust both hands forward, one directed at Sora and the other directed at the members of Avalanche, the energy wall disappating suddenly. He then brought both hands upwards, and energy began crackling ominously above him. Sora just stared, unable to will himself to believe that this man, this monster, the one who killed Zack, could be his former friend. The man in the raincoat opened his mouth to speak, using his actual voice this time.

"**REALITY RIFT!**"

A terrible sound, similar yet different to the sound of fabric being ripped, echoed across the room. A massive portal manifested itself, easily the length of the entire celing. Darkness and black energy swirled around in the vortex, and suddenly an invisible force grabbed hold of everyone in the room- save for the red-haired man who had summoned it. Nanaki, Quistis, Rod, Cait Sith, Niccolo, and Vincent, despite their best efforts to hold on to the carpet, were pulled in to the portal in a few moments. Sora fealt himself leaving the ground and raised the Kingdom Key above his head, letting out a yell. He then brought it down with such force he embedded it there, using it as an anchor to keep himself from going to the portal.

Sora held on to the Keyblade for dear life as the vortex pulled. He locked his eyes with that of who he thought was Riku, searching for any sign of his former friend inside. But there was nothing. The red-haired man laughed again, his arms still in the air, and the portal seemed to increase even more in strength, pulling him even harder. Finally the force pulled the Kingdom Key right out of the ground, and Sora was thrown screaming into the dark abyss.

The red-haired man laughed and brought his hands down, the portal closing. "Oh, the boss is gonna be so happy when he hears about this!"

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Alright, now it's time to list which characters are from which game.

Nanaki- Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith- Final Fantasy VII

Vincent Valentine- Final Fantasy VII

Quistis Trepe- Final Fantasy VIII

Niccolo- Legend Of Mana

Rod, The Blade Star!*pose*- Threads Of Fate/Dewprisim(go play it, NOW)

Doll Master- Threads Of Fate/Dewprisim(seriously, the game rocks, you need to go play it)

Also, to lighten the mood somewhat, I'm starting a little mini-contest. Whoever guesses which game the orcs are from gets the ultimate prize in the world….THE UBER-COOKIE OF UNLIMITED COOKIE-NESS!!!

Kurami: Okay, NOW he's lost all forms of dignity.

Auron: When did he have _any_ forms of dignity?

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